The Rovers half back Joseph Heyes, who played for the club between 1885 and 1888, including winning an FA Cup medal in 1886, although he only played in the first game as he was dropped for Nat Walton in the replay. © Cottontown

A replay was hastily arranged for a week later at The Racecourse Ground in Derby, which is now the home of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, the first ever occasion that an FA Cup final was played outside the capital. This made obvious sense for a team involving a Lancashire side and one from the Midlands. The crowd was certainly slightly larger than at the first match. Those assembled saw Rovers win their third cup. A now defunct team, The Wanderers, had won it three times in succession in the 1870s yet they won what was patently a regional competition. By the time of the third Rovers win, the FA Cup attracted teams from not only all over the country but from Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well.

The game itself saw Nat Walton replace Joe Heyes. The game was played in freezing conditions and there had been worries that the game would be postponed due to unseasonably heavy snow. After a lunchtime pitch inspection, the game was allowed to happen. The man of the match was possibly the WBA keeper as Rovers ran riot. Sowerbutts and Brown both scored a goal in a second final and the 2-0 scoreline flattered the team from the midlands as they were utterly outclassed. Jimmy Brown, captain for the second year, discussed the achievement of his side with Major Mandarin, representing the FA. Rovers were told that although they would not be able to keep the cup, something would be done to honour their achievement. In the summer of 1886 a special silver shield was presented to Rovers by the FA and that remains to this day in the oak-panelled boardroom at Ewood Park. The FA Cup they could not keep was actually stolen in 1896 from a Birmingham shop window (Aston Villa where then the holders). When its replacement was replaced in 1911 the FA almost gave it to Rovers to keep but instead decided to reward Lord Kinnaird, who played in a record number of finals including against Blackburn Rovers and then Blackburn Olympic for the Old Etonians side.

Regardless of what was or not kept, the achievement of Blackburn Rovers remains to be equalled ever since. In fact there have only been five instances since of a team winning the FA Cup twice in succession and one of those was Rovers themselves. The closest any side has come to repeating the feat of Rovers was when Arsenal won the cup twice in succession and then reached the semi final the year after in 2004, where they lost to Manchester United. The three wins in succession remain unequalled since. The town of Blackburn had provided FA Cup finalists for an amazing five years in a row. With the rise of professionalism and the birth of the Football League there would be only room for one major team in Blackburn. That would have to be Rovers, although the two years before the League started would be very disappointing ones for Rovers and simply awful compared to their own stunningly high standards.